Teacher Appreciation Gift ~ Garden Stakes

Not that I am counting or anything but only 1 more day of pre-school for my little man Chase and 6 1/2 Days Left for my Bigger Little Man Keegan.  I cannot wait for summer break to start and neither can they.  We have alot of people to thank this year, between Chase's Teacher, classroom helper and classroom Aides he has 6.  Keegan has 1 teacher, 1 bus driver and 1 Karate Teacher.  So that is a total of 9 gifts, plus I volunteered to do 5 more for a family friend.

Garden Stakes 

I Love these they turned out so good. 

 I started by taking an 8ft strip of 1x4 and cutting them down to my desired length.  I was able to get 5 out of 1 length

Then the painting assembly line started. I painted some of them with a black base and some with white and then finished them off either with a blue or a white top coat.  Just to have a little bit of variety.  

This was the most time consuming part of the process as each coat had to be dry before it could be turned and have the other side painted.  Also because I did different layers of paint.  

Once the paint was dry I sanded the edges and the faces to make them look a little weathered.

I used a vinyl stencil then painted the wording Black 

I also sanded the wording too and then added the blue stakes to it and finished it off by spraying them with lacquer.

Our teachers do so much for our kids that all the time spent making these was well worth it.